dungeness.. familiar location
first doesnt work due to being direct on and centre of frame. if you had pulled back a little and showed a little more background on the right side it would sit better.
second is nicely composed, with the boats shadow and the background boat and hut too.
however both are extremely over processed and overcooked. ( did you bracket 3 shots then merge them in photomatix ?)
they look like they have been tonemapped to the extreme.
the pebbles are orange and the sky a blue to make your eyes bleed.
you ask about about "that look" you get with full frame but until you get beyond the HDR stage things wont look any better ( and yes ive been there myself and went through the whole HDR looks great even when you need sunglasses to look at them.
and i use the term HDR very loosely as its not HDR, its as said above tonemapping ( though the two get heavily used in the same context they are quite different )
this rather humours article is worth a read. judging by your images i put you at around level 5 at the moment
http://digital-photography-school.com/10-steps-every-hdr-photographer-goes-through/
so i would suggest stick with the camera your at, and work on shooting single shots or if you want to do multi shot bracketed then to consider a much more toned down approach to try to keep things as natural as possible.
FF will never improve the look you want judging by your current images simply as the problem lies in the processing after the shot .
